In 1999, a memorial museum was opened in honour of the Belarusian Michurin in his small birthplace.
Large and small blue lakes wherever you look, slowly running rivers and rivulets, birch groves and pine forests, flat landscape – all this is the Sharkovshchina Area, which is so dear to each of its inhabitants.
The Sharkovshchina District is located in the west of the Vitebsk Region on the border with the Braslav, Miory, Glubokoye, and Postavy Districts. The urban-type settlement of Sharkovshchina is located 210 km from Vitebsk and 195 km from Minsk. 19% of the area of this district is occupied by forests. There are 11 lakes here, as well as the Disna River, along with the Bystritsa, Golbeitsa, Yanka, Berezovka, and Mnyuta tributaries, flows from west to east. Part of the district is occupied by the Yelnya Nationwide Hydrological Reserve.
In the western part of the region is the village of Alashki. Ivan Sikora, a breeding gardener and distinguished agronomist of the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic lived and worked here in the first half of the last century.
In 1999, a memorial museum was opened in honour of the Belarusian Michurin in his small birthplace.
The exhibits displayed in the halls immerse museum visitors in the time when the gardener, who learned everything on his own, lived and worked.
The museum displays part of Sikora’s private collection of books, his belongings, and tools that he used together with his workers when tending his fruit trees.
You can listen to a detailed story about how Ivan Pavlovich worked as the Head of the Northern Control Point of the Belarusian Experimental Horticulture Station. Museum visitors will also be able to watch the documentary film The Story of a Gardener filmed by the Belarusfilm film studio in 1964.
Next to the museum is an estates house which was built by Ivan Sikora himself with the help of his wife Maria in 1924. All the buildings are smothered in apple trees. Other fruit trees and bushes also grow here, and there are even hazel trees and cedar.
In memory of Ivan Pavlovich, a regional holiday of amateur associations Yablochny Fest has been held in Alashki since 1999 during the period when members of the Orthodox Church observed the Apple Feast of the Saviour. This year was the 25th anniversary of this holiday. The museum staff will be happy to show a master class with all the tricks for those who are interested in growing and tending fruit trees.
We invite you to visit Alashki where each guest is always welcome!
In 1939, a mill was built near the village of Agalnitsa for the needs of the agricultural artel and, of course, for the villagers. For many decades, here they ground the grain into flour and also produced cereals. As time went on, the need for grinding grain at the mill no longer existed, and the three-story building ended up abandoned.
Not so long ago, Lidiya Barinova, a Minsk resident, and her husband acquired the old mill building to turn it into the Agalnitski Mlyn green farm stay. The renovations resulted in 10 rooms for residents, a bathhouse, and a billiards and tennis table.
The foyer is decorated with antiques that were collected both from the neighbouring villages and brought from distant places. There is a children’s playground in the area adjacent to the farm stay.
The farm stay is located on the high bank of the Disna River, so guests can go boating or take a ride on an all-terrain carrier affectionately named Ponya. This vehicle can move not only across fields, swamps, but even along a river. The nature, sense of privacy, and remoteness from human settlements are those things that attract city dwellers to this area. The services provided by the green farm stay are in demand both in summer and winter. You can see this for yourself when you come to Agalnitski Mlyn.
Sharkovshchina is one of the few settlements in our country where an Orthodox priest served, who was then canonised.
At the very beginning of the twentieth century, the building of the Dormition of the Mother of God Church in Sharkovshchina became unsuitable for holding services due to its dilapidation. The question of the construction of a new church came up. Konstantin Zhdanov, a 26-year-old priest, volunteered to meet this challenge. He went to Moscow and, with a cross in his hands, visited the houses of rich merchants to collect donations for a new church and the installation of an iconostasis. The Father Superior also took an active part in the construction of the holy shrine. He laid ceramic tiles on the floor in his own hand and performed other work. The church was delivered completed in 1912.
After the revolution, priests and believers hit hard times, as churches were closed and churchware was nationalised. The priest Konstantin Zhdanov also suffered a difficult fate. He was arrested and escorted to Disna being reported. Here, after numerous tortures, he was buried half-dead in the ground. This happened on 29 April 1919. Soon, believers buried Father Konstantin under the altar of the Holy Hodegetria Cemetery Church, where his body lay for about 90 years.
On 20 August 2008, the priest’s incorruptible relics were transferred to the Church of the Resurrection. Three years later, on 4 June 2011, Father Konstantin Zhdanov was canonised. On 29 April 2015, on the day of remembrance of the holy martyr Konstantin Zhdanov, a monument-bust to the heavenly patron of the Sharkovshchina Area was solemnly opened in Sharkovshchina. In May 2020, his relics were transferred to the Epiphany Cathedral in Polotsk.
A particle of the holy martyr’s relics is kept in the Dormition of the Mother of God Church that was erected by Father Konstantin more than a hundred years ago.
Recently, a Syty Papa mini-cafe was opened in the centre of the settlement.
“It didn’t take us long to come up with a name for this catering facility,” says Tatyana, the owner of the establishment. “If the father of the family is well fed, the mother’s life becomes much easier and simplified.”
The cafe’s menu includes various potato-based dishes, shawarma, hot dogs, there is a wide selection of ice cream, and coffee, tea, juices and fresh pastries are also served. There is a terrace with tables for 14 seats. At the moment, this area of the cafe is quite enough, but in the near future, as Tatyana said, there are plans to expand this mini-cafe.
In October 2016, a specialised environmental class on the sustainable use of natural resources “Nature of the Native Land” was opened at the Germanovichi Secondary School. It is aimed at solving environmental problems, including preserving the unique ecosystem of the Yelnya nature reserve.
Under the guidance of Marina Fyodorova, a biology teacher of no mean ability, the children participate in various environmental projects, such as Small Rivers – Big Problems, Green Schools, etc. Close cooperation has been established here with the Disna Forestry Enterprise and the Regional Inspectorate of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection.
In the educational institution itself, a school forestry unit has been operating for several decades. Students give ecological hands-on practicals on the territory of the Yelnya nature reserve and also do research, the results of which are submitted to Belarusian scientists.
Ten kilometres from the Germanovichi Secondary School is the village of Budy. The ecological trail begins here on the picturesque shore of Lake Volozevo. Its length is two kilometres and it starts from the recreation area and goes to the exit along a wooden flooring deep into the swamp. There is an eight-meter-high observation gazebo, which provides a view of the Yelnya nature reserve beyond compare. The ecological trail is offered to everyone; you can walk along it at any time of the year.
The married couple, Sergey and Anna Rimdenok, live and work in the agro-town of Germanovichi. The couple have been working at the Germanovichi Pottery Centre for many years, and preserve and enhance the priceless cultural heritage of local artisans.
Sergey has been passionate about pottery for over 25 years. He made his first potter’s wheel and kiln for firing ceramics on his own. Over the years, he gained experience in his craft and his technique and methods of making products improved. The master makes ceramics using the milking method, that is, he adds cow’s milk to the clay. He mastered the technique of coating products with various types of technical glazes.
Recently he became interested in birch bark. He covers the outside of a ceramic vessel with birch bark tape. Sergey can easily sculpt any tableware (a plate, mug, vase, etc.) from an ordinary piece of clay on a potter’s wheel or make a children’s whistle toy.
Anna is engaged in weaving. She makes bedspreads, towels and belts on a special wooden weaving loom (krosny), which is more than a hundred years old. She has many creative ideas and plans.
The spouses regularly take part in regional, national, and international festivals and competitions and are their laureates and winners. Sergey and Anna were recently awarded the title of Merited Masters of the Republic of Belarus. They are happy to share their skills and abilities with the younger generation. There are four children’s groups at the Potter’s Centre, which are attended by local children and teenagers. Boys are more interested in clay, while girls weave colourful belts and bedspreads together with their mentor Anna Mikhailovna.
Recently, more and more of our homelanders claim that Belarus has all the conditions for a good and civilised holiday. Moreover, the infrastructure of such recreation is expanding and improving even in small towns and rural-type settlements. The Sharkovshchina District is an example of this – there is something to show and tell to domestic and foreign tourists. This is a land of amazing nature, unique century-old architecture, and warm hospitality.
Проект подготовил Сергей Райчёнок,
видео София Борисенко, Александра Ходюкова,
фото Дмитрия Осипова,
web-верстка Чимковский Пётр
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